IN TODAY'S RADIO REPORT: Whistleblower says EPA chief Pruitt lied to Congress; Trump Administration's launches new effort to roll back fuel economy standards; Australia pledges of millions of dollars in bid to rescue Great Barrier Reef; PLUS: The U.S. now has its first-ever climate science denying Secretary of State... All that and more in today's Green News Report!

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' Kyra Phillips, former deputy chief of staff Kevin Chmielewski said he was "100 percent" forced out after raising concerns about Pruitt's spending on first-class travel.

“And I kinda got in trouble behind closed doors for not signing that. Just Kevin, ‘Sign it. You know, be done with it.’ And the last thing I was doing was signing off on that.” According to Chmielewski, chief of staff Ryan Jackson told him that Pruitt either wanted him fired or placed where he “doesn't have to see [him] again.”

"In regards to Iran, Mr. Pompeo would isolate us from our European allies," said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland. "With regards to the Paris climate talks, he would isolate us from the rest of the world."

The preferred course of action would freeze fuel-economy standards at 2020 levels for both cars and light trucks, greatly slowing progress in reducing auto emissions. The proposal also challenges California's authority to impose its own vehicle standards...a decision that could effectively split the United States into two auto markets and set up a messy legal battle.

[T]he Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Transportation Department will soon be sending the White House a proposal to roll-back Obama-era fuel economy standards. And these standards would result in nearly $100 billion in higher costs for U.S. drivers in the coming years...The savings from the standards put in place by Obama are so significant that the EPA calculates "consumers who finance their vehicle with a 5-year loan would see payback within the first year."

Case in point: On Monday, just two days after Wolf’s remarks, Flint Mayor Karen Weaver called on the Environmental Protection Agency to intervene and force Michigan to restart regular meetings as part of a Flint water advisory group...You know things are desperate when Weaver is calling on Administrator Scott Pruitt’s EPA to do something.

what should have been the main takeaway of the whole affair was a line that Wolf saved for the kicker, appropriately. “Flint still doesn’t have clean water,” she said. But instead of focusing on Flint, Mich., media Twitter accounts were brimming with angst about Wolf’s brand of humor. The hyperbole is particularly disingenuous when it comes from conservatives who have consistently tolerated a vulgar, bullying president. But tough love from a comedian whose job was to speak truth to power, and get some laughs in the process? An outrage.

The funding will go towards improving water quality, tackling the crown-of-thorns starfish, and expanding reef restoration. It will also help develop coral that is more resistant to high temperatures and light stress..."So unless it comes up with a strong policy, to slash our carbon pollution, stop the Adani coal mine and rapidly shift Australia to renewable energy, we will not see a future for the reef."

A new study warns it has become a "highly altered, degraded system."...After inspecting every one of its reefs, and surveying them on an almost species-by-species basis, the paper reports that vast swaths of the Great Barrier Reef were permanently transformed in the summer of 2016.

'GREEN NEWS EXTRA' (Stuff we didn't have time for in today's audio report)...

To stabilize global temperature, net carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero. The window of time is rapidly closing to reduce emissions and limit warming to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit or 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, the goal set in the Paris climate accord. The further we push the climate system beyond historical conditions, the greater the risks of potentially unforeseen and even catastrophic changes to the climate - so every reduction in emissions helps.

Clean-energy enthusiasts frequently claim that we can go bigger, that it's possible for the whole world to run on renewables - we merely lack the "political will." So, is it true? Do we know how get to an all-renewables system? Not yet. Not really.